


Bait and Switch

by thegirlwiththeottertattoo



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: College AU, F/F, Trimberly Week, and hacking, and stuff, coffee shop AU, in that it takes place AT a coffee shop, in that it takes please NEAR a college, kind of has spies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-12-08 19:41:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11653392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegirlwiththeottertattoo/pseuds/thegirlwiththeottertattoo
Summary: Kim is just trying to do her job. She meets a new and interesting person and things don't go quite as expected.Coffee Shop AU (sort of) for Trimberly Week





	Bait and Switch

**Author's Note:**

> so it's been forever since i wrote any fanfic, but i've been really just enjoying the hell out of this ship and this fandom so i thought i'd throw my hat into the trimberly ring. this is technically for day 1 of trimberly week (coffee shop AU/college AU), but i turned it on its head a little. it's unbeta'd and I edited it late at night so hopefully there's not too many glaring errors.
> 
> i'm hoping to be able to keep up with the trimberly week schedule, but if not at least i was on time with this one haha.

There was a time when Kimberly Hart loved her job. She liked the opportunities for travel. She liked being able to use her natural ability to charm the shit out of everyone she met. She liked the challenge of it, the thrill of sneaking around for what she thought was a good cause. The rush she got on the job could almost make her forget that had begun to feel like she had to pretend to be something she wasn't all the time, not just when she was on assignment. She worked her way to the top but her agency was cutthroat and to stay there she had to play the game. So she was always pretending and... well of course it had gone to shit.

Six months ago she'd thought she had everything she'd wanted. An assignment to the European group alongside her boyfriend and the girl she considered her best friend, putting her flawless British accent to work to fight the good fight. It was supposed to be her dream. Of course that was before she'd realized the main reason Ty and Amanda wanted to be assigned there was so they could hook up behind her back (or rather _continue_ to hook up behind her back...).

Unfortunately that had all come out in the middle of a mission and the whole thing had exploded in her face (literally). Ty had ended up without a tooth (temporarily... sadly they put it back), and she'd ended up unemployed with a severe injury to her leg. She'd figured that was it. She'd hit rock bottom. Sitting in the hospital, regretting every choice she'd ever made and contemplating whether it was even worth it to go on, she'd gotten a visit from Jason Scott, an old friend from college, who offered her a job with the mysterious Mr. Z's private agency. After all that had happened she hadn't expected to ever work in intelligence again, so she'd taken it, even though he'd warned her that she'd have to prove herself, to prove that what happened with her old employer was a fluke...

So here she was, fresh off suspension and with a freshly rehabbed knee and some minor facial scarring (which Billy ensured her added character) sitting around bored out of her mind on the kind of observe and recruit mission that a wet behind the ears newbie two days out of the academy could've done.

Literally... sitting... in a pretentiously hipster cafe (the kind that was unapologetically earnest about its vegan, gluten free baked good options and ethically sourced dark roast coffee beans) a block off the Cal Berkeley campus, dressed like a coed (jeans and a maroon tank top, minimal makeup, hair in a loose ponytail, laptop open, headphones in, blending perfectly with the two dozen other overly caffeinated students in this place), set up at a corner table to look like she was cramming for a history final, complete with open books and a notebook with actual history notes in it that she'd scrawled out last night.

The incredibly expensive glasses she wore were rigged up with a camera and a heads up display that was scrolling spectacularly boring information that told her _nothing was goddamn happening_. The laptop in front of her had a small window in one corner that showed a feed from the only part of the cafe she couldn't see, the back hallway that led to the bathroom and store rooms. The rest of it was taken up with a web browser open to face book and a Microsoft Word doc that had half a pretty damn good essay on European politics in the interwar period.

The only thing keeping her from going completely stir crazy was the fact that she was chatting with Billy in what was meant to look like a Facebook messenger chat, but was in fact a super secure, heavily encrypted connection to where he sat in front of his huge bank of computers and support equipment back at HQ.

That was probably the best thing about this stupid assignment, the fact she got to work with him Billy. He was a sweetheart who would never make jokes about Ty's tooth or snide remarks about her fall from grace. Sadly he was in an office three miles away because this job was such a softball it didn't even warrant one of the company's unbelievably conspicuous backup vans parked a block down.

(She'd been trying to convince them that they needed to switch to, like, a food truck or something, because the old white panel van trick didn't fool anyone anymore... "they're not that kind of van" Jason insisted every time. She had rolled her eyes and said, "every van is that kind of van...")

She sighed as she took a sip of her third vanilla hazelnut latte and typed a message, _what the fuck, Bill, is this guy ever showing up??_

The answer came back almost instantly. Billy probably knew she'd be restless. He'd seen how stir crazy she got during her physical therapy. _it's only been an hour, Kimberly. he's usually here anytime from 2-4 on Wednesdays..._

Kim sighed. He was right, but that didn't mean she had to like it. _do we really want to recruit a guy who's this predictable?_

_You know he's a perfect fit._

And she did. Mr. Z's organization was like the Robin Hood of their world.  She may have taken the job because she was sort of desperate, but she was glad she could at least feel sort of good about working for him. The hacker they were trying to recruit (ugh, a fucking recruiting job... seriously, they could've gotten an intern to do this shit), who went by the inexplicable alias "The Black Ranger", was the sort of guy who hacked into government databases and exposed waste, fraud and abuse. He also exposed political hypocrisy and corruption and arrogance. His heart was in the right place, but he also wasn't really having much of an effect aside from making people who already knew the government and big businesses were awful even more aware of it. Mr. Z wanted to direct the guy, aim him towards targets and information that could really do some work to chip away at corruption.  But first they had to contact him.

They'd had an eye on him for awhile, and now was as good a time as any to try to hook them. Face to face was best for these things, in Mr. Z's opinion. Her old organization would've just contacted him through the dark web, but Mr. Z was old fashioned. He'd been in the business forever and he believed personal connections were the best way to build trust. It was one of the reasons he'd sent Jason to recruit Kim.  
  
Kim sighed, conceding the point, but not quite ready to drop the issue of her extreme boredom, _I dropped out of college to avoid this studying for hours shit._  
  
She could almost see Billy's brow furrowing in puzzlement, _I thought you dropped out of college because your grades bottomed out when you were recruited by your old employers..._  
  
She grimaced. Anyone else bringing up her old job would've gotten some serious snark in return, but this was Billy, who was the sweetest person she'd ever met. And she'd sort of been asking for it with her previous comment.

 _I just hate sitting around. Wish I could just sit out front in one of our serial killer vans and approach when he actually came in._ _  
_  
_We have to make sure he's clear. And the place is clear. You know protocol. The less we look like intel agents the better._  
  
_Yeah, yeah_. She paused and did a visual sweep of the coffee shop, an instinctive threat assessment. She was so certain that she wasn't going to see anything out of the ordinary (just like the last twenty two times she'd done this) that she almost jumped in her seat when she saw someone looking back at her.  
  
A woman. Another student from the look of her. Laptop open, coffee in front of her, oversized mid range headphones on her head. Yellow beanie, gray t shirt with a stylized illustration of a tiger on it that somehow makes her look cool rather than like a pretentious hipster. Kim met her brown eyes and felt a slight jolt from the intensity of the gaze the girl had leveled at her.  
  
She took in more details. Long brown hair, with lighter highlights, bronze skin. Just the slightest smirk on her face. Like she knew Kim was a little dumbstruck (or a _raging bi mess_ when she ought to be doing her damn job... one or the other). Kim noticed her mouth was hanging half open like a dumbass and hastily closed it.  
  
_Fucking hell, Hart_ , she admonished herself, _you're a goddamn secret agent_.  She could literally bring a man to his knees with one well placed shot to the throat. One look from an (admittedly hot) college girl shouldn't have been enough to render her a puddle.  
  
Although she supposed it was in keeping with her cover. Didn't all students flirt while they were supposed to be studying?  
  
The girl held her gaze for a moment longer before turning back to her book. Kim watched her until she realized it might be getting a bit creepy and then looked back down at her computer screen. Jesus. This is not something she needs happening right now she's on a goddamn job.  
  
Luckily (or unluckily) a message from Billy pops up seconds later. _Have eyes on him. He's coming in now_  
  
Kim glanced up as the door opened and Zack Taylor, alleged genius hacker, walks in. Tall, Asian, handsome, dressed in a olive drab blazer and simple white t-shirt... He takes the booth that Billy had identified as his usual one during the mission brief and opens his laptop. The barista brought him a drink the minute he was settled and Taylor winked at her as he gave her a ten and told her to keep the change.  
  
Kim rolled her eyes at the barista swooning, although that just made her recall how she'd reacted to the college kid a minute ago. Her jaw tightened and she adjusted the laptop so the hidden exterior camera was filming Taylor. She watched as a small progress bar popped up on her screen showing how far along Billy was with getting into Taylor's laptop so they could see what he was up to. The bar was filling up at snail's pace, much slower than Billy was supposedly capable of. She supposed they shouldn't have been surprised that Taylor had good encryption. Really good.

Once Billy gets in, they'll have to watch him for a bit, see if he's got backup, see if anyone else is on him. She hadn't seen anyone up to this point, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. Taylor wasn't dangerous, per se, but he embarrassed people... the kind of people who would do a lot to avoid that sort of thing, up to and including arranging a little accident for some smartass hacker. It'll take awhile... so Kim is hoping Billy gets in fast.  
  
As though sensing her wish, another message appears, _This_ _is going to be a minute. But I'll get it_ _  
_  
_Okay._ She replied, settling back in her seat to watch the progress bar on her screen. She pulls one of her books a bit closer and types half heartedly at her Word document to try to maintain some semblance of cover. After a few minutes she scanned the place again and saw movement from the table where the girl she'd seen before was sitting. The girl is ordering something at the counter, gesturing in the general direction of Kim's table.   
  
The barista smiled at her and prepared a drink. She pushed it across to the girl who fiddled with the saucer for a minute before looking up sheepishly at the barista with an apologetic half smile on her face. The barista nods sympathetically at whatever it is the girl was saying, then picks up the coffee cup and heads towards Kim's table. Kim tapped the tab key and the shift key in a quick complicated pattern and the camera feed, progress bar and chat window disappeared.  
  
"From the lady," the barista said as she set the coffee down in front of Kim, smiling broadly. She gestures with her head towards where the girl is settling herself into her seat again.  
  
Kim pulled the coffee cup towards her and smiled, "Thanks." She glanced at the girl, who gave her a languid nod and a lazy, inexplicably attractive smirk... and then went straight back to reading her ten pound biology book, evidently letting the amazing gesture sink in.  
  
Smooth as fuck indeed.  
  
She'd even waited until pretty much the exact moment when Kim had finished her other drink. Kim sipped the new coffee and raised an eyebrow. It was exactly what she'd ordered before. She must have asked the barista...  
  
She's so impressed by the level of effort she nearly forgets to switch her screen back.  
  
The coffee is nearly gone when Billy finally pairs their network to Taylor's. Taylor himself is engrossed in his display and Kim can see why now. He's got about four windows open. He's not actively hacking anything, but he's chatting to different buyers and putting together deals.  The man is a wizard. Going at everything with reckless abandon. No one should be making deals like this at a damn coffee shop no matter how much encryption he has. The man is either bold as hell or stupid as shit.  
  
Billy messaged her then, _J says observe one hour, then move in._

  
She frowned. Of course he wants the full hour. Not like _he_ has to sit here the whole time.  
  
As she replied with a simple _okay_ , she noted movement in the corner of her eye. The girl. The girl had packed up her book and laptop into a battered canvas backpack and pulled on her bomber jacket (is it possible that she looks even better now? All signs pointed to yes). And she's headed her way...  
  
Goddammit. The fucking gods hated her. Of course she'd feel a spark with someone for the first time in ages when she can't do anything about it. She wished she could break protocol but part of being a better person and a better agent and not screwing everything up royally this time is playing by the stupid rules. Shit. Maybe Kim could get her number at least before she had to make up some lame excuse to cut her off.  
  
When the girl slid into the chair across from her and pulled her headphones down around her neck, Kim pulled her earbud out of her right ear. The smirk is there, the spark is there, even stronger now that they're closer. Kim can see a small stud in her nose and that her ears are pierced multiple times. So. Hot.  
  
Kim isn't sure what she expected the girl to say but, "So, _hermosa_ , what's your interest in my handsome friend over there?" isn't it. The girl's voice plus her casual use of Spanish midsentence are both incredibly hot... although it's amazing Kim even took not of this considering that _what_ the girl has said has immediately put Kim on her guard.  
  
But since she's damn good at what she does, the college student mask didn't even waver as she replied, "What're you talking about? I've been here for about three hours studying my ass off." She made sure to put just the right tone of concern and confusion into her voice. Even furrowed her brow a bit to sell just how clueless she was.  
  
The girl gave a short, sharp laugh, that definitely wasn't one of the nicest laughs Kim had ever heard, "You're good _princesa_ , real good. I'm sure we could go back and forth on this for hours. But I'm not big into talk so let's cut this short."

"What?"

The girl reached into her bomber jacket pocket and Kim had to make an effort not to tense up. "I'd say you've got about 30 minutes before that shit I stuck in your drink really starts to take effect so you should talk pretty fast, because if you don't," she brought her hand out of her pocket, holding a small glass vial full of clear liquid, "I won't give you the antidote."  
  
"Excuse me?" Kim was going for indignant but the thought of being poisoned is both frightening and aggravating. The fact of the poison isn't worrying her nearly as much as the fact that she let a pair of big brown eyes lull her into thinking it was okay to drink something a stranger gave to her.  
  
"Don't try to figure out how to contact your pals, cause we got that locked down. Blocked all your comms and I know for certain you don't have anyone out there in one of those vans. And don't you even think about making a move on me... yeah I see you twitching those perfectly manicured hands of yours. You do and you won't have a chance for the poison to do its work..." Kim glanced down at the computer screen and was dismayed to see that the wifi connection was cut off completely. The webpages she'd had up were suddenly displaying the "cannont connect to internet" message and the wifi icon had a big red x over it. Even the HUD on her glasses had gone dark. Shit. The girl must have something on her that was blocking her signals.

  
Kim briefly ran through her options. She didn't want to break cover. She was well trained enough that she really could deny who she really was for hours. But evidently she didn't have the time for that. The clock was ticking. The girl looked deadly serious and Kim wasn't sure she had the luxury of doubting her.  
  
If this was a different kind of job, she might have gone for a terminal solution, but the goal here was recruitment not elimination. Even if this girl clearly thought otherwise. Trying to kill someone who was clearly a friend of Taylor's wasn't going to endear the agency to him, and besides she didn't want to start making a scene in a public place surrounded by civilians.   
  
So she sat up a little straighter, let her college student mask drop, her face harden and her expression pull neutral. She raised an eyebrow coolly, "I'm not sure I'm really up for a game I show you mine, you show me yours with someone who just admitted to poisoning me."  
  
"I'm good at that game, but I wouldn't flatter yourself, _princesa_. Not sure you're my type. And you don't exactly have a lot of choices."  
  
She knew it was off topic but Kim kind of wanted to call serious bullshit on the whole "not my type" comment. She was pretty sure there weren't a lot of hetero explanations for the way this girl has been looking at her but she pushed it aside. Getting out of here alive was the top priority, and the antidote the girl had, held just out of Kim's reach, was the key to that.  
  
"We're not here to hurt him," she said, grimacing as she blows her cover. She knows she's taking a risk. Jason will probably be pissed. Hell he was probably busy being pissed at that very moment. But honestly the worst that can happen is that Taylor bolts and they have to find him again... Well the worst is that she dies... but something about this girl tells her she's not going to kill Kim if she can help it. Kim's dealt with killers before. This girl is doesn't read as a murderer, although she's been wrong before...  
  
The girl is definitely hard to read, and she's changed her demeanor entirely since she sat down. The flirtatious glint in her eyes is gone. Kim has her game face on and so does she. Her eyes are flat and giving away very little. Her face has closed off as thoroughly as if she'd slid a mask over it.   
  
"Hacking into other people's shit isn't polite... well, unless they deserve it, but we don't," she said, probably referring to Billy's breaking into Taylor's network. The irony of a hacker's... well, she's not sure what this girl is to Taylor, although she's obviously associated with him somehow...  
  
Kim shrugged, "Standard procedure. We had to confirm who he was."  
  
"Why?"  
  
She takes a breath, "We want to recruit him."  
  
The girl frowned. She gave Kim a hard stare. She didn't seem terribly surprised by the revelation, but then she's not really expression any reaction except annoyance, "Who's _we_?"  
  
Kim tilted her head slightly towards her jacket pocket, asking permission to move her hand towards it, "I have a card." The girl gives her a nod and Kim plucked her card from the outside pocket of her jacket, setting it on the table between them.  
  
The girl glared down at it, and Kim was pleased and smug when the inscrutable facade drops for a moment and is replaced for a split second by surprise when she sees the name of the company.  
  
" _Seriously_?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
" _You_  work for THEM?"  
  
Kim's brow furrowed. She felt her temper rise. She'd gotten so good at keeping a lid on it recently... but something about this damn girl... "The fuck does that mean?"  
  
Before the girl can reply, she cocked her head as though she's listening to something. Kim darted her eyes to where Taylor was sitting and saw his lips moving urgently as he packed up his shit methodically but quickly. The girl glared at Kim fiercely, "There's a fucking strike team incoming? _seriously_? Is this how go around recruiting volunteers?"  
  
Oh to hell with professional, " _You're_ the one who cut the connection between me and my support! Just because they weren't right around the corner doesn't mean they weren't going to send someone eventually!"

The girl rolled her eyes and let out something that's halfway between a growl and a groan that Kim finds weirdly cute (and where the hell did _that_ come from...? Her brain is not getting the message about her being on a _job_ ) and then grumbles something in Spanish that causes Kim to chuckle.

"You kiss your mother with that mouth?"

The girl raised an eyebrow at her, clearly surprised, "That's usually what I _say to_ my mother... You speak Spanish?"  


"Yeah, I'm full of surprises, but that's beside the point..."

The girl gritted her teeth, "Yeah the point is that sending a gun wielding black bag team isn't a real good way to engender trust..."

"And poisoning me was??"

Now the girl's grimace slowly rolls over into a tight, fierce grin, "Well you might be a little right about that, _princesa_."

Kim knew the team wasn't far if Taylor's camera feeds have caught them. She should be a lot more pissed about the whole being poisoned and played thing, but to her surprise she's realized that this is the most fun she's had in months. There's something satisfying about bantering with a pretty girl, even if it's mostly an argument... she's only human after all. And she's almost more annoyed that Jason hit the backup button so soon... even though she knows it was the right call. All she really knows is that she liked talking to this frustratingly sarcastic, annoyingly attractive girl...

The annoyingly attractive girl who was half out of her chair. Kim stood before she knew what she was doing and her hand shot out, catching the girl by the wrist. The girl glared at her hand and then up at Kim, who caught her eyes and held them. Evidently Kim's stare was a lot more intense than she'd intended because the girl froze for a split second.

"Think about the offer."

"For real? You think... he would even think about coming to work for..."

"You know what we're about. Just think about it."

"You even want us after I poisoned you?"

"Nobody's perfect... and maybe we weren't as subtle as we could've been..."

Taylor suddenly appeared behind the girl, gave Kim a hard look, "T..." 

The girl gave him a quick look, maybe five seconds, communicating volumes apparently, because Taylor just nodded, tossed one more glare at Kim and headed for the back. Then the girl turned back, "He's a free agent _, princesa_ , won't be tied down even for you..." 

"This could be negotiable. Contractor isn't the same as employee..."

"You an employment lawyer now...?" she frowned as she listened to her earpiece again, "Time to go..."

Kim could feel her first real job turning into a disaster, "At least think about it..."

The girl held her gaze for another long moment, intense and searching, and Kim feels that jolt of _whatever it is_ again... something deep down that she can't quite control that's reacting to this particular person in this particular moment. Then she gave a quick nod, which Kim takes as a victory, and turned to go. 

Kim watched her, still a little dazed from that last look. The girl was almost to the back door, and the front was bursting open as the five man backup team enters, when she remembered, "What about the antidote??"  
  
The girl turned with the door half open behind her, and tosses the little vial of liquid to Kim underhand, turning on that half smirk that seems more genuine than most people's full smiles, "That's vodka. Don't need an antidote for hazlenut latte, even if that shit does taste like poison to me... I lied about the poison...  I'm a hacker,  not a murderer..." then she gave Kim a mock salute and disappeared through the back door. And Kim felt like she should be a lot more annoyed at herself for being played so thoroughly... but somehow she's just sort of stunned... the girl looked good walking away...

The back door closed completely just as Jason arrived at the table next to her. The backup team didn't come in guns blazing. They're trying (and failing) to look nonchalant in college sweatshirts and jeans. Two of them went out the back as the other two secured the coffee shop under the guise of wandering around looking for a table. 

Kim became fully aware that Jason was there when he put his hand on her arm and shook it a little. She realized she'd been staring at the closed door. Shit. No. Stop being a perv and act like an agent damn it. She looked up at Jason, and his blue eyes are concerned. Her immediate thought is that he looks nothing like a college student. Then she realized he was talking to her.

"... all right? We lost contact... where did..."

"Out the back. Taylor had backup. She confronted me and scrambled the comms..."

"Billy designed those comms! They can't be scrambled!"

She raised an eyebrow, challenging him to offer an alternate explanation. 

He shook his head, sheepish, "Okay well, we'll have to work on that. But what happened?"

"We just had a talk. I had to tell her who we were. Extended the invite, gave her the card..."

Luckily he didn't seem that pissed off about the whole 'broke cover' thing, "Damn... how'd she make you?"

"I think she knows we've been watching Taylor."

"Has she been around this whole time??"

"Yeah, evidently. Although I never noticed her."

Jason sighed, "All right, well.. I guess we'll just have to write this one off... Taylor would've been a catch but..."

His phone rang and he answered it, and started talking quietly to someone, probably Billy. Kim sighed, knowing that this day has been a bust, but finding it hard to be too pissed off about it. She started to gather up her stuff and shove it into her bag. As she went to pick up one of her books, her phone buzzed. Her work phone, not the burner she was using for her cover. Her supposedly untraceable work phone that only people within the agency knew the number to. She frowned and pulled it out of the depths of her bag. The text is from an unknown number.

_Working for your boss might not be so bad, but we'll definitely be talking terms when you find us._

Kim frowned. it was so unexpected that it was as though the words weren't in English. It took her a minute but then she texted back, _So you're coming in?_

_Ha. No. Just because I could work for your boss doesn't mean I'll make it easy on you. You want me, you're gonna have to do more than just sit in an off campus coffee shop downing overpriced lattes for three hours. _

She raised an eyebrow, remembering the last thing the girl had said... she'd said she _was_ the hacker... It hadn't registered that well at the time, too much going on, but now... Kim typed back: _You're the hacker._

Kim could hear the laugh as the next message came in, _Knew you weren't just a pretty face, princesa._

That one she stared at long enough that the next message came in before she could come up with a suitable retort. _You want me, you have to find me._

Kim felt a pleasant sort of warmth spreading through her chest even as the old adrenaline spike hit her. Back when she'd first started out, this job was about the thrill of the chase, the challenge of the job. Ty and Amanda and her old bosses had made it something else, but this...

She smiled as she typed, _You should know I'm the best._

_Easy to say. What's say you prove it...?_

This girl had no idea what she was doing. If there's one thing Kim would never do it was back down from a challenge like this. _I will\_

The reply came almost instantly, _We'll see.  Catch me if you can, Kimberly Hart...._

Kim knew instinctively that even if she responded to that message she wouldn't get anything back. The girl had issued the challenge, and she'd shown that she knew Kim's identity was. Kim felt a grin spread across her face slowly. The agency hadn't gotten what it wanted this time, but it wouldn't give up on recruiting Zack Taylor (who apparently was just the decoy, the big, loud ostentatious target while the girl was the quiet, inconspicuous ghost...).

And she didn't care what Z or Jason or Alpha or anyone said. She was going to be on the team that went after this girl. She hated losing, even temporarily, but she had a feeling the chase was going to be one hell of a ride.

**Author's Note:**

> i just saw atomic blonde and have this whole vision now of kimberly and trini as secret agents just cutting a swath through packs of KGB guys and henchmen and shit.
> 
> i hope you enjoyed this, please let me know what you think. it's my first fic for this fandom and the first thing i've written for awhile so hopefully it's not too horrible. 
> 
> you can find me on tumblr @haughts-bulletproofvest


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